8:8
Paul then makes what is actually quite a remarkable statement. “But food does not bring us closer to God”. Now for us that seems a blindingly obvious statement, but Paul was a Jew. Now if you ask anyone what the Law said, one of the things they would be likely to bring up would be that there were restrictions on what one could eat. Yet Paul says here that eating food is neither here nor there. Now Paul’s comments here are directed at the “knowers”. They may have thought they were demonstrating their greater knowledge and being quite happy to eat the food offered to idols, but Paul is telling them that it actually does nothing for them.
8:9
So exercising their rights by eating food offered to idols does not bring them closer to God, i.e. it does no positive good, but it can do serious harm by becoming a “stumbling block” to the “weak”. Schreiner points out that there is a parallel with Jesus’ words on not causing “little ones” to stumble (Lk 17:1,2). The “knowers” needed to think of others, not just themselves, and definitely not about demonstrating how clever they were!
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